Shake off the Darkness and Move Forward
by ladybugbirdie42
Summary: Ritsu's been acting weird ever since awakening his psychic powers. It's like he's a completely different person. Ritsu knows things that nobody else does. There's something he has to do, and he's going to do it even if it costs him everything. AU. Inspired by pmmm
1. Chapter 1

Reigen checks the time on his phone for about the fiftieth time for lack of anything better to do.

_Mob sure is taking his sweet time._

A noise catches his attention, and he shifts in its direction, wondering if maybe the evil spirit that's supposedly around here has finally gotten tired of waiting around and decided to reveal itself.

If it is actually an evil spirit, then it would be dangerous for Reigen to go looking for it without Mob, but that's certainly never stopped him before. He's tired of waiting around, too. Besides, it'll be good to go ahead and scope out the situation so that they don't have to waste time once Mob arrives.

Reigen shoves open the half-rotted door of the building and steps inside in time to see the technicolored lightshow of a psychic exorcising an evil spirit in the room immediately to the left of the entrance. It's similar enough to Mob's own lightshow that Reigen has the ridiculous notion that maybe Mob somehow snuck by him and performed the exorcism without Reigen even noticing. He quickly dismisses that idea.

The blinding lights die down, and Reigen catches sight of the exorcist. As expected, it is indeed not Mob, but Reigen finds himself even more surprised by who it actually is.

Their eyes meet, and the boy freezes. Reigen blinks and he's gone.

"Shishou."

Reigen wheels around to spot Mob standing in the entryway. "Oh, hey, Mob. Took you long enough."

Mob ignores him, staring at some unidentified point in space for a few moments before he says, "There's no evil spirit here."

"There's not," Reigen agrees. "Not anymore."

"Oh. Did you already get rid of it?"

"Nah, someone else beat us to it. Sorry to drag you all the way out here for nothing. I'll take you out for ramen to make up for it."

They start heading back.

"Oh, yeah. And, Mob? Tell your brother that if he's ever looking for a job, he's welcome at Spirits and Such."


	2. Chapter 2

Shigeo hands Ritsu the last plate to dry and put away.

"Oh, yeah. Shishou said to tell that you can work at Spirits and Such if you want a job."

Ritsu looked at him curiously. "Why would Reigen-san say that? After all, I don't even have any psychic powers."

Shigeo hummed thoughtfully. "I don't know. I don't really understand what Shishou says half the time."

* * *

"Keeping secrets from your brother, eh, Ricchan?" Dimple feeds himself through the crack in the door, a gross smirk fixed on his face.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Ritsu answers dismissively, not even bothering to look up from his homework.

"Your psychic powers, kid. The ones I helped you awaken yesterday."

"My name is Ritsu," is the only reply he gets.

Dimple rolls his eyes. Teenagers. "So," he presses, going over to hover closer to Ritsu, "why'd you lie to your brother about your powers, huh?"

"Is there any reason why he should know?"

"Is there any reason why he shouldn't?" Dimple counters just because he can. Truth is, he doesn't actually care either way. He's just bored an apparently has nothing better to do than try to get juicy gossip out of a middle schooler. It's sad, really. "I mean, is there even a point to trying to hide your powers from Shigeo? Can't he just sense your aura or something?"

Dimple waits around in silence for a couple minutes before figuring that Ritsu's lack of answer means he's decided this conversation is over. Lame. "Guess I'll go bug Shigeo, then."

"Dimple," Ritsu says suddenly, menacingly.

Dimple freezes, looks back, and finds himself much more intimidated by this 13 year old than he'd ever care to admit.

"If you ever hurt Nii-san in any way, I will exorcise you."

Dimple shudders involuntarily and races out of the room.

Seriously, what is up with that kid? That's a far cry from the kid who was so excited about his newfound powers last night.

_Is his personality changing?_

Well, he supposes, power does corrupt.


	3. Chapter 3

Sunday evening Mob receives a phone call from his master out of the blue.

He frowns down at his phone. The only reason Reigen calls him is to tell him he needs him for a job, something Mob has asked him multiple times not to do.

Even though he doesn't really want to, he still answers the phone before it stops ringing, just like always.

"Hey, Mob," Reigen greets, same as always.

'We've got a big job.'

"You don't have to come in for a while. I'll call you if I need you, okay?"

…What?

He finds himself kind of…disappointed?

He's been going to Spirits and Such for the past three years. It's become part of his life, and to suddenly be cut off like this with no explanation stings more than he would have expected.

* * *

"What's wrong, Nii-san?" Ritsu asks him later that same evening. "You seem kind of down."

"Oh… It's nothing. Shishou just said I didn't have to come in for a while."

Ritsu frowns a little at the answer before giving his brother a small encouraging smile. "Well, look on the bright side. You'll have a lot more free time now. It's good to take a break, Nii-san. You should enjoy your time off."

Shigeo tries his best to return the smile. "You're right. Thanks, Ritsu."


	4. Chapter 4

"You know, when I invited you to work for me, I didn't mean steal your brother's job," Reigen says out of the blue halfway through Ritsu's second day of working at Spirits and Such.

A spike of annoyance shoots through Ritsu. _Why is he bringing this up now?_

He looks up from the book he was reading to pass the time (turns out this job is mostly just a lot of sitting around the office doing nothing, which is a complete waste of his time) and frowns at Reigen across the room. "You agreed to this," he reminds him. What's Reigen complaining for? It's not like he wants to be here either.

"Because you threatened me!"

"I didn't threaten you."

"Gaslighting! That's gaslighting. Unbelievable. I'm being bullied by a ten-year-old."

Ritsu rolls his eyes and returns to his book, refusing to take the obvious bait regarding his age.

Reigen sighs and dramatically leans backwards in his office chair. "Man, your brother has the conversational skills of a rock, and he's still more fun to have around the office than you."

Ritsus's eye twitches. "If it's any consolation, Reigen-san, this will all be over in a month." _And you probably won't even remember any of this in the end._

Reigen's eyes narrow at that. "What happens in a month?"

He doesn't receive any kind of answer to that.

Reigen drags a hand down his face. "Ritsu." He looks tired. "Why are you here? Because I know you don't like me—you never have. And you obviously don't want to be here. So what's up?" He gives Ritsu several minutes to give him some kind of answer, and when he gets nothing, he ventures a guess of his own. "Does this have to do with your brother?"

There's a clattering noise from the chair as Ritsu abruptly stands up. "If you don't need me anymore today, I'm leaving."

The office door slams shut with a loud thud.

Reigen buries his face in his hands and sighs.


	5. Chapter 5

Shigeo falls into a simple routine, each uneventful day blurring into the next. Get up, got to school, attend club activities, come home, do homework, find some way to occupy himself for the rest of the day.

If he's being honest, it's not as if his life has changed drastically now that he's on an extended leave from Spirits and Such. There wasn't really anything exciting about his life even before, so it's not like he can complain much. Still, he can't say he doesn't miss the spark of color (however small) that working for Reigen added to his dull life.

There's nothing he can do about it, though, so he tries to enjoy his time off like Ritsu said, but there's not anything in particular that he wants to do. He has more free time than he knows what to do with, and unfortunately, Ritsu's been really busy lately. He doesn't have any time for Shigeo anymore.

Today, though, when he opens his shoe locker in the afternoon, he finds something that changes up his stale routine. He ignores Dimple's insistence that the letter is totally fake and heads over to Ankle Park.

* * *

The beginning is always slow. Ritsu tries to enjoy the respite while he can because honestly, he's just so, so tired. It never works, though. He's too antsy, impatient for everything to start moving. He already knows he'll never truly be able to rest until this is all over. He needs to end this.

The days creep past painfully slowly, and he marks them off on his calendar one by one until he finally reaches the first circled date.

It's time.


	6. Chapter 6

No one comes.

Dimple has already finished dramatically weeping over how gullible Shigeo is and has since taken to sporadically darting around out of boredom, pestering Shigeo about when he's finally going to give up and leave.

"Oh? Is that Mob I see?"

Mob turns in the direction of the voice to see Reigen walking towards him, one hand jammed into his pocket, the other raised in greeting.

"Hi, Shishou. Are you heading to a job?"

"Nah. I was actually on my way to get something to eat. Wanna come with?"

He does, but… "I can't right now. I'm waiting for someone."

"And I'm telling you, nobody's coming!" Dimple exclaims from the other side of him.

"Who are you waiting for?"

"I don't know," Mob admits. He hands Reigen the letter.

"Uh, you do know this is a fake love letter, right?" Reigen says after looking at it for a grand total of five seconds.

"It is?" Mob asks, disappointed.

"That's what I've been saying this whole time!" Dimple shouts.

"Yeah, it's pretty obvious. You didn't seriously fall for this, did you? You're so easy to fool."

Mob's shoulders slump, and he stares down at the ground, clearly upset by this revelation. Somewhere in the background Dimple grumbles, "Oh, so you'll listen to him, huh?"

Reigen pats him on the back. "Cheer up, Mob. I'll buy you some soba, okay?"

"You don't have to…"

"I want to. I haven't seen you in a while, and like I said, I was already getting food anyways. Besides, your brother ditched me today, and eating out alone is no fun."

Mob looks up at the mention of his brother. "Oh. Was Ritsu supposed to meet up with you to go eat?" he asks, confused. He hasn't heard anything about Ritsu and Reigen going out to eat together, but if the two of them have started getting along better, he's happy to hear it.

Reigen gives him a weird look. "He didn't tell you, did he?"

"Tell me what?"

Reigen sighs but doesn't seem particularly surprised. "We have a lot to talk about."


	7. Chapter 7

He catches Black Vinegar's gang before they've even left the school grounds. They go down as easily as Ritsu expects, despite their numbers.

Now it's just a waiting game.

He notices someone from the corner of his eye. Not who he's looking for. Not even from Black Vinegar. The familiar uniform makes him frown.

_Tch. A witness._ And from his school. He doesn't need word of this spreading around the school. He does have a reputation to uphold. And out of the loop though his brother may be, he doesn't want to risk Shigeo catching wind of any of this.

"Hey." He doesn't remember the guy's name, but he does recognize him. He's the one who started this whole mess.

He looks surprised to see Ritsu, which makes sense considering Ritsu just upended his entire plan. "You're from the student council, aren't you? Why are you here?"

"It doesn't matter. Leave. And don't speak of this to anyone."

Onigawara makes absolutely no move to leave, which shouldn't be surprising, but it annoys Ritsu anyways. Instead, Onigawara says, "Be our shadow leader! With your help we can take down Black Vinegar's shadow leader!"

"I don't have time for such childish games. I will defeat Hanazawa Teruki myself."

"Why, you—!" Onigawara aims a punch at his face.

Ritsu catches his fist easily and squeezes, making Onigawara crumple to the ground in pain. "Now leave. And don't involve my brother in any more of your nonsense."

"Oh?" A new voice cuts in smoothly. "Are you the one who did all this?" Teruki looks down at the unconscious bodies of his gang disinterestedly. "Defeated by just one person…" He shook his head in mock disappointment. "Well, I suppose trash is just trash in the end."


	8. Chapter 8

Ritsu makes the first move before Teru has the chance to, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye.

"You—!" Teru's plainly shocked, and Ritsu takes advantage of that to aim an attack at him. Teru is quick to react, though, and blocks Ritsu's attack before making his own.

It doesn't end up having much of an effect on Ritsu, but it is enough for Teru to manage to put a bit of distance between them and recover.

"You have psychic powers, too?" Teru asks, clearly surprised to meet another like him. He doesn't even wait for Ritsu to reply. "No matter. Psychic powers or no, I'm still above you. I'll just have to put you in your place."

"Funny. I was just about to say the same thing."

* * *

"So, yeah, your brother's been working for me for, like, a week and a half? Something like that." They're sitting across from each other at a table, waiting for their food. "And he didn't mention anything about this to you?"

Mob shakes his head. He's still not entirely sure what he's supposed to feel about all this. "But Ritsu doesn't have psychic powers."

Reigen gives him an incredulous look. "Uh, yeah, he does. Do you two ever talk to each other?"

Mob frowns down at the table. "He told me, when I told him about your offer, that he didn't have any powers."

Reigen's brow furrows. "Why would he lie to you about that?"

Mob's frown deepens and he glances away, unhappy about the thought of his little brother lying to his face. "Maybe he got his powers after that and just forgot to tell me."

"No, he had powers before then. I saw them. He's the one who exorcised that spirit. That's why I invited him to work for me." Mob doesn't give him any kind of answer, quietly brooding. Reigen sighs. He's been doing that a lot lately. That's what dealing with these kids has gotten him. "Listen, I don't know what's going on with your brother. Just—look out for him, okay?"

Of course. Mob's not sure why Reigen's telling him this. He always looks out for Ritsu. That's his job as the big brother.


	9. Chapter 9

Teru's been gauging his opponent's abilities throughout their fight, and so he can say with absolute honesty that he's stronger than the other boy.

The problem is that pesky ability of his. Teru has his own technique that allows him to "teleport"—using telekinesis to boost the speed of his movements. This seems to be something different, though, and he's having trouble figuring it out.

Ritsu's in one place one second and in an entirely different place the next. It's made it difficult for Teru to land a good hit on him. Even worse, Teru can't track his movements, so Ritsu keeps catching him off-guard. It's only thanks to his quick reflexes that he's still standing.

He's got a barrier up to buy himself some time, but it's not going to last forever, and being on the defensive isn't going to win him this fight.

He needs to think.

This kid's not stronger than him. He can't be. He just needs to figure out how to counter Ritsu's teleportation, and then he'll show him. Nobody can defeat Hanazawa Teruki.

Think.

There has to be some way to beat it.

Teru drops his barrier and slings a few rocks at Ritsu with his telekinesis. Predictably, Ritsu disappears from sight before the rocks can hit him, and Teru swings around to catch Ritsu's face with his fist. The psychically assisted blow sends Ritsu across the schoolyard, and Teru follows.

He stares down at Ritsu with a smug look. "That's a pretty neat trick you've got there. Too bad your actions are so predictable. Those powers are wasted on you." He takes off his tie and uses his psychic powers to make a sword out of it just so he can dramatically point it at Ritsu. "Any last words?"

Then Teru gets blown away.

Ritsu's heart stops.

"Nii-san?"


	10. Chapter 10

Shigeo's just barely started on his way home after saying goodbye to his master, Reigen's words still echoing in his head, when Dimple reappears before him, frantic. He didn't even realize Dimple left in the first place.

"Ritsu's in trouble!"

Psychic power, unbidden, crackles across Shigeo's skin. "Take me to him."

* * *

_This is bad,_ Ritsu thinks.

Shigeo's aura is oppressive; the air crackles dangerously with psychic energy usually kept tightly contained.

Shigeo is _angry_.

This is the last thing Ritsu wanted.

"I'm okay," Ritsu says rushes to assure, pushing himself off the ground to stand beside his brother. Shigeo doesn't look at him, instead glaring in the direction he sent Teru flying. Ritsu puts a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Nii-san, I'm okay," he repeats. It's enough. Shigeo finally looks his way and seems to really _see_ him for the first time. "It's okay. I'm not hurt."

Shigeo relaxes a bit, his face smoothing back into its usual blankness. "Let's go home, Ritsu."

Ritsu all too quickly agrees. He's not at all happy about how this has turned out, but he knows he's lost this round, and he has to cut his losses. More importantly, he wants his brother as far away from all this as possible.

He tries to hurry Shigeo along before Teru can come after them, but they're too slow.

"Did you really think I would just let you go that easily?"

Teru comes flying out of nowhere and slams into Shigeo.

"Nii-san!"

Shigeo skids a little with the momentum of the impact but is otherwise unfazed. "I don't want to fight you anymore," he informs Teru.

Teru stares at him, shocked that his attack had basically no effect on him, but he recovers quickly, a grin spreading across his face. "Oh? Unlike the other one, it looks like you're actually strong."

Ritsu bristles a little at the insult, but that quickly turns to worry when he sees Teru launch another attack. "Let's find out which one of us is stronger!"

Of course, his worry is unfounded as the attack once again, to the shock and frustration of Teru, has absolutely no effect on Shigeo, who stares at Teru blankly. "I am," he says flatly.

"Huh?"

"I'm stronger than you," Shigeo states simply.

Ritsu snorts while Teru sputters incredulously. His brother really can be blunt at times.

"It's true," Ritsu informs him, "Nii-san is much stronger than you."

Teru glares at him, but Shigeo speaks up before he can say anything. "See? Now there's no reason for us to fight. Let's be friends."

Teru's head whips back around to face Shigeo again, looking at him like he's crazy. Eventually, though, he sighs in defeat. He's begrudgingly aware that there's no way he can defeat Shigeo (let alone him _and _Ritsu) in the state he's in (or even in his best shape). He's lost this one.

"No. I won't be your friend. But I acknowledge you as my rival."


	11. Chapter 11

Honestly, when his brother showed up, Ritsu thought it was all over. But things actually turned out okay in the end.

Shigeo effortlessly managed to do what Ritsu had failed to do. His brother really is amazing.

It's so frustrating.

He can't continue to have to rely on his brother like this.

* * *

"Do we have any jobs?" Ritsu asks as soon as he walks into the office.

"Someone's awfully eager to work today," Reigen comments, looking up at him over his laptop. "Especially considering you didn't even bother to show up yesterday. So what's up, hm?"

"I'm not strong enough," is all he gives, not even really directing his answer at Reigen, as he walks over to his usual spot.

"What kind of answer is that? What were you doing yesterday?" he asks, already knowing he's not going to get an answer. He gives Ritsu an assessing look-over, trying to see if he can figure anything out on his own. "You're looking kinda scuffed up. You getting into fights? I thought you were supposed to be an honors student."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Nothing right now."

Ritsu huffs, scowling down at his desk. _Useless. _"Can't we just go out ourselves and find some spirits to exorcise?"

"We could, but we wouldn't get paid for it."

"I don't care."

"Oh, I'm sure _you_ don't. You're 13. But I actually have bills to pay, you know."

"I'll just go myself, then." Ritsu stands up to leave.

"Hang on. I'll come with you. Just let me get ready." Reigen shuts off his laptop and starts preparing to go.

"Why? It's not like you can do anything," Ritsu says, but he does wait.

"Eh, I can probably get some free advertising out of it or something. Let's go."

Ritsu rolls his eyes but follows.


	12. Chapter 12

It's not enough. He knows this. But it's better than nothing, so he hunts down as many evil spirits as he can. At the very least, there'll be less around to cause problems for people.

It feels like an empty reassurance when he knows it won't even mean anything in the end if he can't get stronger.

The fight with Teru has made him all too aware of his weakness.

Even after everything, he's still too weak. Is there nothing he can do about it? Is he doomed to be powerless forever?

All the doubts that surface whenever he stops moving for too long come flooding back.

Is there even any point to this? Maybe he's doomed to fail no matter how hard he tries. Maybe this is just their fate, and he can't change it no matter what he does.

He's tired.

Sometimes he wants to just give up. There's a part of him that already has.

But he can't stop. He can't.

He's scared to.

_'Your latent abilities surpass your brother's. You have to believe that.'_

He can do this.

It's not over yet.

He's not out of ideas just yet.

Yeah, maybe it's been hopeless from the start. The thing is, though, he's never known when to quit.

He just has to bide his time a little longer.

Two more days.


	13. Chapter 13

There's someone at his hideout. Shou can sense them even before he reaches the entrance.

An esper, just like him.

Aw, and he really liked this place, too. He came up with all sorts of plans for it.

Well, he's never been the kind to just roll over and give up when he wants something.

He's on-guard when he enters the abandoned warehouse, but the intruder is behind him somehow in an instant, tackling him to the ground.

_Teleportation? He's like Shimazaki._

Shou shoves his assailant away, pushing off the ground and skipping a few feet back. He lets himself disappear from sight to buy himself time while he assesses the situation.

His opponent is a boy his age. He's just kind of sitting there, frowning in Shou's general direction. He doesn't appear to have any intention of attacking again, but he also doesn't seem at all concerned about the possibility of Shou retaliating, which is annoying.

"I know you're still here, Suzuki," he sounds sort of exasperated, weirdly enough. "Stop hiding. I just want to talk."

Oh, yeah, cuz that doesn't sound shady at all. This kid he's never met before, who somehow knows who he is—who _attacked_ Shou first—really thinks Shou's going to believe that he "just wants to talk". He must think Shou's an idiot.

"Come on, Suzuki. I've been waiting here for you for two hours now because you're impossible to track down. You know, I never took you for a coward."

Now he's trying to egg him on, but Shou refuses to fall for such an obvious ploy because he is totally very smart and mature. He does actually answer this time, though, even if he doesn't show himself, so he still kind of loses. "How do you even know about this place? I just found it yesterday."

"Beat me in a game of MarioKart, and I'll tell you."

Shou's amused face reveals itself, followed quickly by the rest of him. "You came here just to challenge me to a game of MarioKart?" This kid's actually pretty interesting. He grins. "Alright, you're on. What's in it for you?"

"If I win, you have to team up with me."

Shou raises an eyebrow. "Team up with you for in what?"

Ritsu smirks. "I'll tell you after I win."


End file.
